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The downcast faces on computer screens are 1,500 miles away at a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas: a 20-year old Honduran woman arrested rafting across the Rio Grande and a 23-year-old man caught under similar circumstances.

Four agents wearing headsets reel through a list of personal questions, spending up to an hour on each adult and even longer on children. On an average day, hundreds of migrants are questioned on camera by agents in San Diego and other stations on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The long-distance interviews — introduced last year in El Paso, Texas, and extended to California — are a response to the dramatic increase of Central Americans crossing the border in Texas that also has flooded immigration facilities with hundreds of women and children. The Border Patrol does not have the staff to process all the immigrants crossing in the Rio Grande Valley, but faraway colleagues have time to spare.

The remote video processing reveals a perpetual predicament that has long bedeviled the Border Patrol. Many agents wind up stationed in places where crossing activity is slowest because the Border Patrol struggles to keep up with constantly shifting migration patterns.

One example of the staffing mismatch: the roughly 2,500 agents in the San Diego sector arrested 97 immigrants illegally crossing the border on June 14, according to an internal document reviewed by The Associated Press. On the same day, the roughly 3,200 agents in the Rio Grande Valley made 1,422 arrests.

President Barack Obama will ask Congress for more than $2 billion to respond to the flood of immigrants illegally entering the U.S. through the Rio Grande Valley and for new powers to deal with returning unaccompanied children, a White House official said Saturday. A letter will be sent to Congress on Monday, said the official who was not authorized to speak by name and discussed the requests on condition of anonymity. The exact amount and how it will be spent will come after Congress returns from recess on July 7. Whether any funds will go toward border staffing is unknown.

In San Diego, the video processing is a welcome change of pace. Arrests are at 45-year lows and many agents go entire shifts without finding anyone. Cesar Rodriguez, who joined the Border Patrol in 2010, said eight hours fly by since he gave up his assignment watching a stretch of scrub-covered hills east of San Diego and took on a new assignment to process the immigrants via video.

“If there’s nothing going on, what are you going to do? You’re just staring at the fence,” Rodriguez said in his new office, whose parking lot offers sweeping views of hillside homes in Tijuana, Mexico.

A few feet away, Victor Nunez says he interviewed a woman carrying a 4-month-old child and spent his last shift working on a group of 93 people that crossed the Rio Grande at once. Such activity was unheard of on his overnight shift patrolling the quiet mountains near San Diego.

“I feel like we’re helping out our agents,” said Nunez, who joined the Border Patrol in 2011. “It’s a big problem going on there.”

The McAllen station is designed to hold a few hundred people, but often teems with more than 1,000 who spill into hallways and outside. Migrants have been sent to stations in quieter parts of Texas, and they were overwhelmed. Overcrowding at the Laredo station prompted a visit from the fire marshal last month.

The shift to the Rio Grande Valley is part of a long-running trend where immigrants and smugglers change crossing locations faster than the government responds.

San Diego was the hot spot until the mid-1990s, when 1,000 agents were added there. After traffic moved to Arizona, staffing in Tucson ballooned under President George W. Bush, who doubled the Border Patrol close to its current size of more than 21,000 agents.

Some warn against bulking up in South Texas because smuggling routes will inevitably change along the 1,954-mile border.

“They don’t want to transfer a mass amount of agents and open a gap somewhere else where we have control,” said David Aguilar, the Border Patrol chief from 2004 to 2010.

State Board of Education member David Bradley, who represents Southeast Texas, is asking for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Commissioner of Education Michael Williams to intervene, and prevent any more spending by the Beaumont Independent School District board of trustees.

Specifically Bradley wants to make sure the board doesn’t approve paying Superintendent Timothy Chargois, Ed.D, $244,000 as part of his separation package, nor paying lawyers $300,000 to continue the legal fight against a state takeover of the district.

The board is scheduled to vote on both items Monday.

On Friday, Chargois announced he would be resigning on October 31st of this year, but if Commissioner Williams appoints a board of managers before then, Chargois would be removed and replaced.

But no action can be taken by Williams until a record review is held July 10th, that’s basically an appeal to the Texas Education Agency by BISD.

Bradley released the following statement to 12News:

“Dr. Chargois’ desire to quit is timely in that the Board of Managers’ first action will be to install new leadership. But why are taxpayers being required to pay the man almost $200,000 for not showing up to work for another year? He is breaking his contract to avoid getting fired.

As a taxpayer, I am outraged that the current trustees are considering spending not only $200,000 as a good-bye gift to the captain of the ship, but another $300,000 on attorneys’ fees in a ridiculous attempt to stop the Titanic (BISD) from sinking (TEA takeover)! These spending sprees are not authorized by the current budget, nor does Monday’s agenda allow amending the budget to accommodate them.

I am calling on the Commissioner of Education and the Texas Attorney General to stop this insanity immediately and to find a way to block the wasting of any more taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars by this out-of-control school board.”

On Monday, the board is also scheduled to vote on the proposed termination of 113 contract administrators and teachers. Teachers believe they have been unfairly targeted and have been hosting petition drives to save their jobs. They will be collecting signatures at the Beaumont Health Department at 950 Washington Boulevard, starting at 2:30.

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“The first time most Americans heard this man speak is when he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention almost two years ago,” Obama said. “And they saw this young guy, a pretty good speaker, not bad-looking, talk about how America is the only place where his story could even be possible. And I watched, and I thought, ‘That’s not bad.’ “ Continue reading here.

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Republican gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott‘s campaign blasted remarks made by state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer at the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas, calling them inappropriate and symptomatic of the party’s recklessness.

Martinez Fischer, well-known for his penchant for throwing bombs at his colleagues across the aisle, has been especially on point this weekend. During his speech to the full convention Friday, Martinez Fischer said “GOP” stood for “gringos y otros pendejos.” His office has also been handing out six Lotería cards to delegates, one depicting a red-faced Abbott as “El Diablito.”

“Wendy Davis and her allies beliefs that all Anglos and Republicans are ‘gringos’ and ‘pendejos’ is both despicable and insulting to the hundreds of thousands non Anglos that support Greg Abbott, including his own multicultural family,” Abbott campaign spokesman Avdiel Huerta said of the Fort Worth state senator, who accepted the state Democratic Party’s nomination for governor Friday.

“Instead of trying to sell her out of touch ideas like ObamaCare and higher taxes, it appears Sen. Davis new strategy is one of desperation,” Huerta added. Abbott’s wife Cecilia is Mexican American.

Martinez Fischer had this to say in response: “I stand by my words. I did not know Greg Abbott was at the convention to hear me, and if I had known that I would told him directly to his face.”

Abbott’s response came on the heels of a tweet political adviser Dave Carney sent remarking on the number of viewers watching a live stream of Davis speech.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”Isaiah 5:20

Dallas, TX — Earlier today, this website visited the Texas Democrat convention in Dallas. We heard Wendy Davis speak several times. The experience reminded us that this was the crowd that chanted “hail satan” last summer at the Capitol.

First things first, the crowd was about one-third the size of the crowd at the Republican convention earlier this month; we find this ironic considering how many angels fell from heaven.

Planned Parenthood was there. They were giving away free condoms! One of the Planned Parenthood volunteers encouraged this author to “take 3 [condoms], you might have a good convention.”

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An El Paso state senator said Texas Gov. Rick Perry is misusing money when it comes to the surge of immigrants coming from south Texas.

El Paso received four planes full of migrants who reportedly said they are fleeing violence in their Central American countries on June 7 and June 14.

Sen. Jose Rodriguez said the millions being used to protect the border should be used to help those crossing since this is a humanitarian crisis.

Rodriguez said the $1.3 million weekly that Perry said he will spend to send troops to the border isn’t appropriate.

Instead, the money should be used to specifically help the undocumented, unaccompanied minors who he said got bad advice to be taken into the country.

Rodriguez said he doesn’t even think the federal government ever asked for Texas’ help in the first place and that federal immigration officials are doing their job just fine.

“So it’s not like the federal government has been sitting on its chair and not doing anything. And my view is that if we’re going to spend any taxes, public dollars, here that they should allocated for humanitarian purposes – providing decent shelters, medical care and other needs of the children,” said Rodriguez.

He added that the Department of Public Safety director has asked his officers to not ask immigration status of those they come in contact with.

Instead that they turn suspected immigrants over to federal immigration authorities.

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The anti-amnesty group, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), is calling on Americans to mail their “gently used underwear” to President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner in response to a government request for new briefs for the recent surge of illegal immigrants being held by border patrol.

“Obama and Boehner have proven once and for all that their talk of passing immigration reform amnesty, instead of enforcing America’s existing border and immigration laws, only brings more unwanted and destructive illegal immigration!” said William Gheen, president of ALIPAC, on the group’s website.

“Instead of using our tax money to buy illegals 42,000 pairs of new underwear, we would like to send the illegals and DC politicians a message by mailing them our used underwear, and some of our pairs are in really bad shape due to the bad economy and all of the jobs illegal immigrants are taking from Americans.”

The ICE solicitation placed earlier this month through Federal Business Opportunities cites that the thousands of pairs of underwear are bound for El Paso, Texas. In a statement to Breitbart, an ICE spokesperson said: “This [request for quote] is a normal solicitation for routinely procured items needed at ICE-owned detention facilities around the country. At ICE-owned detention facilities, the agency is required to provide basic necessities in order to feed and clothe detained aliens.”

The ALIPAC request for Americans to send their “gently used” underwear is specifically noted because “DC is already full of dirty laundry.”

The ALIPAC statement goes on to say that the Obama administration is wasting taxpayer money for illegal immigrants by assisting pushes for immigration reform, amnesty and inadequate enforcement of current laws. The statement adds that “Obama is releasing most of the illegal immigrants into America in violation of US laws.”

The message concludes: “Americans who want to help the illegals and Americans who are upset that John Boehner and Barack Obama are throwing the future for American children under the bus along with their Oaths of Office, the US Constitution, the outcome of our elections, and the current laws of Congress, are encouraged to mail their used underwear to Barack Obama at The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, and John Boehner at Office of the Speaker, H-232 The Capitol, Washington, DC 20515.”

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The Obama administration announced plans Friday to create more detention space for families caught at the border and to accelerate certain cases through immigration court, hoping to stem a record-setting tide of migration from Central America.

Mayorkas said DHS and other federal agencies also plan to put additional immigration judges and other personnel on the border to speed up the processing of asylum claims.

The White House announcement today comes amid mounting political pressure for the administration to change policies that Republicans argue have encouraged both unaccompanied children and migrants from Central American with children to cross the Southwest border.

The government has released tens of thousands of Central Americans caught crossing the border together with their children in recent months at public bus terminals across Texas and into Arizona because Immigration and Customs and Enforcement officials lack detention beds for families. The agency now has only one residential family detention center in Pennsylvania with a capacity of 96 beds.

As of the end of May of this fiscal year, about 39,000 adults with children have been apprehended along the southwest border, Mayorkas said. As of June 15, about 52,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended along the southwest border.

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Liberals love to pretend that illegal immigration is okay because “Illegals just do the jobs Americans won’t do.”

This phrase is an absurd notion that excuses lawlessness as a function of political convenience; if we accept that these criminals are not really harming the national and state economies, it makes it easier to shrug and accept amnesty and a complete lack of law enforcement.

According to a new report that is bound to have far-reaching implications on this debate, all employment growth in America since 2000 have gone to immigrants.

A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a nonpartisan group, shows that job growth in American since 2000 have gone to immigrants, both legal and illegal.

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CIS scholars Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that there were 127,000 fewer working-age natives holding a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job was 5.7 million above the 2000 level.

The rapidity with which immigrants recovered from the Great Recession, as well as the fact that they held a disproportionate share of jobs relative to their share of population growth before the recession, help to explain their findings, the authors report. In addition, native-born Americans and immigrants were affected differently by the recession.

Other significant findings include:

Because the native-born population grew significantly, but the number working actually fell, there were 17 million more working-age natives not working in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000.

The share of natives working or looking for work, referred to as labor force participation, shows the same decline as the employment rate. In fact, labor force participation has continued to decline for working-age natives even after the jobs recovery began in 2010.

Immigrants have made gains across the labor market, including lower-skilled jobs such as maintenance, construction, and food service; middle-skilled jobs like office support and health care support; and high­er-skilled jobs, including management, computers, and health care practitioners.

The supply of potential workers is enormous: 8.7 million native college graduates are not working, as are 17 million with some college, and 25.3 million with no more than a high school education.

According to the study, 58 million working-age natives are not employed.

Camarota and Zeigler report three conclusions:

First, the long-term decline in the employment for natives across age and education levels is a clear in­dication that there is no general labor shortage, which is a primary justification for the large increases in immigration (skilled and unskilled) in the Schumer-Rubio bill and similar House proposals.

Second, the decline in work among the native-born over the last 14 years of high immigration is consis­tent with research showing that immigration reduces employment for natives.

Third, the trends since 2000 challenge the argument that immigration on balance increases job oppor­tunities for natives. Over 17 million immigrants arrived in the country in the last 14 years, yet native employment has deteriorated significantly.

What this report demonstrates is that illegal immigration is not a benign slight to the American people, but an economic problem on a massive scale that stems from lawlessness, a lack of border security and thorough unwillingness by our president, Democrats and moderate Republicans to remedy this problem.